After reports of the weeping statue spread like wildfire, many believers rushed to the village to ascertain the veracity.

Candelaria Perez Jimenez, local politician who made the journey to the village to catch a glimpse of the statue, was quoted as saying:

“I do believe that the Virgin has done many miracles, I came not for curiosity, but for faith, because I do believe that God and our most holy Mother has done many miracles. Undoubtedly the Virgin hurts a lot with what has happened in Mexico: earthquakes, hurricanes, child deaths, God is calling us to make us aware.”

68-year-old Lucia Torres Jimenez also expressed her belief in the Virgin, stating that she returned to health from the power of the virgin, having spent 19 years with a kidney transplant: “She is feeling what is happening in Mexico, she is feeling what is going to happen.”

The earthquakes have left a huge burden on Mexico. The country’s president, Enrique Pena Nieto, says preliminary accounting suggests damage from the magnitude 7.1 quake and an even more powerful one earlier in the month could cost upward of $2 billion.